U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez won the 8th District congressional primary tonight, defeating Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla handily on the strength of the voter turnout in North Hudson.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Thank you! We built a coalition that withstood some of the most vile things that could be thrown at a candidate,” Menendez declared in his victory speech. “We didn’t just deal with ads. We dealt with straight-up lies. We withstood it all, and we are here tonight victorious!”
“This district is about when you get knocked down picking yourself back up. No one had to face the challenges we had to face this election cycle, and we’re still here! We ran on our track record and that is what voters responded to tonight. We will always fight for you! Whatever questions people had about me we answered them tonight. We earned this election. We fought for this election!”
Bhalla brought the fight to Menendez for months, tying him to his father, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) for getting Democratic power brokers to back his candidacy two years ago and then over the litany of corruption charges currently against him.
While the younger Menendez is not implicated in the ongoing case playing out in Manhattan federal court, the Mile Square City mayor was unrelenting on the subject, with a super PAC, America’s Promise, also helping hammer the same point home.
Despite that, along with the fact that this primary did not have county organizational lines, the Democratic apparatuses in North Hudson, buoyed by state Senator/Union City Mayor Brian Stack, didn’t lose a step.
Guttenberg, North Bergen, Weehawken, and West New York were all big vote getters for the incumbent, who only lost to Bhalla in 2 out of 13 municipalities in the district: Hoboken and Jersey City, both of which were way closer than up north.
A third candidate, Kyle Jasey, who never had a real shot with lackluster fundraising in a raise where at least $4.5 million were spent when it’s all said and done, looks like he’ll finish with roughly five percent of the vote.
Rep. Menendez’s seat is now safe until 2026, while Bhalla will have to decide if he seeks a third term as mayor in November of next year.
“I just got off the phone with Congressman Menendez, I congratulated him on a battle well fought, a victory well fought, this is not exactly the speech I wanted to give, but I’m very, very proud of everybody in this room because we shook up the system through this election,” Bhalla said.
Editor’s note: News Correspondent Daniel Ulloa contributed to this article.